Tag: Food

Creator: Jamie Oliver is an internationally known celebrity chef with a passion for good grub and healthy eating.

Purpose: The document is a series of recommendations to the Government School Food Policy Review. It’s aim is persuade the government to increase funding for school meals and food education.

Manifesto – Foreword

“More must be done to invest in an all-round food education for our kids; one that includes learning about where food comes from and how it’s grown as well as the hands-on experience of cooking in the classroom.

I strongly believe that teaching our kids these life skills gives them the best start in life, for their own health, the health of their kids and their kids’ kids.

And if our kids are also getting a tasty, nutritious meal at lunchtime, their prospects are even better.

It’s been proven time and time again during the last five years that a healthy school meal improves a child’s ability to learn and do well at school.

We can’t ignore that; we must continue to feed our children better, even better.

Purpose: “A Terroir comes from the word terre “land”. It was originally a French term in wine, coffee and tea used to denote the special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of a certain place bestowed upon particular varieties.” (Source Wikipedia)

Manifesto (edited)

Know where your food has come from through knowing those who produced it for you, from farmer to forager, rancher or fisher to earthworms…

Know where your food has come from by the very way it tastes: its freshness telling you how far it may have traveled…

Know where your food has come from by ascertaining the health & wealth of those who picked & processed it, by the fertility of the soil that is left in the patch where it once grew, by the traces of pesticides found in the birds & the bees there…

Know where your food comes from by the richness of stories told around the table recalling all that was harvested nearby?during the years that came before you…

Know where your foods come from by the patience displayed while putting them up, while peeling, skinning, coring or gutting them, while pit-roasting, poaching or fermenting them, while canning, salting or smoking them, while arranging them on a plate for our eyes to behold.

When you know where your food comes from you can give something back to those lands & waters, that rural culture, that migrant harvester, curer, smoker, poacher, roaster or vinyer.

Purpose: To transform the humble, often maligned Veggie Burger and turn into “an entree worth salivating over… no matter the dietary preferences of its customer.”

A veggie burger manifesto for our modern times, tastes

It’s almost easier to define the modern veggie burger by what it isn’t, rather than what it is.

A veggie burger is not, for instance, a proteinless vessel comprising typical burger fare (lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions) built between two buns and melded together with a consolatory slice of American cheese. That’s a sandwich, not a burger. And respectable burger joints that know better rightfully refer to it as such.

Nor is a veggie burger born by substituting a meat patty with a pseudo-exotic vegetable sliced into a half-inch disc. Many otherwise savvy places get away with this tactic, including Patty Burger (eggplant), M Burger (beefsteak tomato), et al. (portobello mushrooms galore). Yes, those are literal veggie burgers: vegetables accompanied by burger accouterments assembled on a bun. But flavor-wise, they’re redundant. Does anyone honestly desire to sink his or her teeth into a “burger” whose dominant flavor is a giant rubber tire of a fungus?

The list of veggie burger faux pas is long. Among the worst offenders: turkey burgers (a turkey is not a vegetable), salmon burgers (ditto), tofu burgers (just plain wrong). The most controversial? Black bean burgers. Black beans long to be liberated, free to swim in chili, soup and dips — not mushed together into a claustrophobic pancake smothered with ketchup and mustard, only to fall apart at the first opportunity. Whoever thought the black bean burger was a good idea was probably a meat eater. (One exception made our list.)

Eliminate the impersonators and you’re left with only the true entries deserving of the veggie burger title: traditional burger architecture (buns, ingredients, condiments) showing off a non-meat patty comprising a balanced combination of vegetables, grains and/or texturized vegetable protein.

That’s it.

Thanks to those chefs who strive toward deliciousness within the aforementioned parameters, the veggie burger is no longer limited to consumption by vegetarians. Conversely, it is no longer acceptable to offer a veggie burger on a menu boasting a chef by name, only to plate a defrosted Gardenburger (or worse, Boca burger).

The best veggie burger, like the best hamburger, should inspire in its maker a desire to create an entree worth salivating over, one that requires two hands and several napkins to conquer, no matter the dietary preferences of its consumer. Until all burger-makers are on board with this manifesto, our work isn’t done.

Purpose: Some rules to live by that make things simpler than counting the amount of each vitamin you consume on a daily basis.

The Superfood Manifesto

• If something is green and from nature, eat a lot of it.

• If something is brightly colored and from nature, eat a lot of that as well.

• If an animal is not active and looks fat when it is alive, don’t eat that much of it (to make it clearer; if an animal is involved in games where liquored up hicks push it over, don’t eat a lot of it).

• If an animal runs around and gets exercise while it is alive, you should probably eat a lot of it.

• If a nut is raw, it is very good for you. If a nut is salted, it is kind of good for you. If a nut is honey roasted, it is candy.

• Don’t eat a lot of candy.

• If after eating something you defecate liquid or don’t defecate at all, you probably shouldn’t eat it a lot and should definitely diversify your diet.

• Regarding bread or rice, the darker it is the better it is for you. The lighter the color, the worse it is for you. Eat a lot of the dark kind.

• While writing a piece about food, if you start to sound like Jeff Foxworthy, you are probably a hack.